Taming of the Shrew was performed on the 26th of November, and The Tamer Tamed on the 28th of November. Dramatic amusements were again required on the 10th and 16th of December, when The Loyal Subject and Hymen's Holiday were severally represented *.

We hear of no masks this Christmas, and no privy seals are extant for the payment of money on account of them the King, Queen and Court seem to have been well satisfied with dramatic amusements of a less

of a play upon this portion of English history), and the last Shirley's comedy. Sir Henry Herbert's entries regarding both are thus worded:

'On Saturday 17th of November, being the Queen's birth-day' [Malone states correctly that the Queen's birthday was on the 16th] 'Richard the Third was acted by the K. players at St. James, where 'the King and Queen were present, it being the first play the Queen

saw since her Majesty's delivery of the Duke of York, 1633.

'On Tuesday 19th of November being the King's birthday, the

' Young Admiral was acted at St. James by the Queen's Players, and liked by the K. and Queen.

* Sir H. Herbert's words are these:

'On Tuesday night at St. James', the 26th of Nov. 1633, was acted 'before the King and Queen, The Taming of the Shrew. Liked.

'On Thursday night at St. James', the 28th of November 1633, was 'acted before the King and Queen The Tamer Tamed, made by 'Fletcher. Very well liked.

'On Tuesday night at Whitehall, the 10th of December 1633, was 'acted before the King and Queen The Loyal Subject, made by 'Fletcher, and very well liked by the King.

'On Monday night, the 16th of December 1633, at Whitehall, was

acted before the King and Queen Hymen's Holiday or Cupid's Va

garies, an old play of Rowley's. Liked.'

costly and more rational description; and the services of the King's company were called for A. D. on the 1st and 6th of January, 1633-4. 1634. The play on the first night was Cymbeline, and on the second The Faithful Shepherdess*.

The peril in which the Master of the Revels was temporarily placed in October, 1633, in consequence of offensive matter (probably oaths) introduced by the King's actors into The Magnetic Lady, appears to have rendered him afterwards extremely cautious on the point; and when, early in January, 1633-4, Davenant's Wits was presented to him for licence, he crossed out many exclamations, that struck him in the light of oaths. Through Endymion Porter, Davenant complained to the King of this exercise of authority, and on the 9th of January the King called the Master of the Revels before him, and directed that he should allow such words as faith, death and slight to stand,' as asseverations only, and no oaths.' Davenant was in considerable favour at this date, which might induce the King to take especial interest about his play. Notwithstanding this royal decision

* These two performances are thus mentioned by Sir Henry Herbert:— 'On Wednesday night, the first of January 1633, Cymbeline was ' acted at Court by the Kings Players-Well liked by the King.

'On Monday night, the 6th of January and the Twelfth Night, was 'presented at Denmark House before the King and Queen Fletcher's 'Pastoral called The Faithful Shepherdess, in the clothes the Queen

had given Taylor the year before of her own pastoral. The scenes " were fitted to the Pastoral, and made by Mr. Inigo Jones in the great 'chamber, 1633.'

against him, Sir Henry Herbert made the following memorandum in his office-book, showing that he was 'convinced against his will.'

6

The King is pleased to take faith, death, slight, ' for asseverations and no oaths, to which I do humbly submit as my masters judgment; but under favour 'conceive them to be oaths, and enter them here to ' declare my opinion and submission.'

The play was therefore returned to Davenant, 'corrected by the King,' on the 10th of January, and on the 28th of January it was acted before Charles and his Queen, and well liked;' yet Sir H. Herbert qualifies this statement by adding: It had a various fate on 'the stage and at court, though the King commended 'the language, but disliked the plot and characters.'

Previous to this date, we learn from the same manuscript, Massinger's Guardian had been played by the King's company on the 12th of January, and Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, by the Queen's servants, on the 14th of January: the first was well liked,' and the last not liked.' It was followed, on the 16th of January, by The Winter's Tale, by the King's players, which was also liked.' Fletcher's Night-Walkers was represented on the 30th of January, two days after the performance of Davenant's Wits, and liked as a merry play*.' Thus between the 16th of No

* This was probably Fletcher's play with alterations by Shirley; for, on the 11th of May, 1633, Sir Henry Herbert makes the following memorandum regarding the receipt of his fee of 27. :-' For a play of Fletcher's, corrected by Shirley, called The Night-Walkers.'

vember, and the 30th of January, thirteen plays were acted before the King and Queen. Sir H. Herbert's memoranda regarding these exhibitions contain nothing peculiar.

Nor did the court revels end here, for the Middle and Inner Temples, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn, joined in the presentation of a mask on the 3d of February*. It was called The Triumph of Peace, written by Shirley, and the scenes and machinery the invention of Inigo Jones. It was a most expensive exhibition; and Whitelocke states that the music only, under the superintendence of William Lawes and Simon Ives, cost no less than 10007., while the clothes of the horsemen were valued at 10,000l. † The maskers and antimaskers assembled

* Malone states that this event took place on the 2d of February, and in this he follows Sir H. Herbert; but the printed copy on the titlepage states, that it was performed before the King and Queen in the Banquetting House at Whitehall, February the third 1633.'

+ Whitelocke himself composed an air for the occasion, which was afterwards extraordinarily popular under the name of 'Whitelocke's Coranto. He gives a minute account of the exhibition of this mask; and Dr. Burney, in his History of Music (iii. 376), has quoted from a MS. of Whitelocke's Memorials, the following particulars, which are also to be found in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 113:

'For the music, which was particularly committed to my charge, I gave to Mr. Ives and to Mr. Lawes 1007. a piece for their rewards: for the four French gentlemen, the Queen's servants, I thought that a handsome and liberal gratifying them would be made known to 'the Queen their mistress, and well taken by her. I therefore invited ' them one morning to a collation at St. Dunstan's Tavern, in the great room, the Oracle of Apollo, where each of them had his plate laid him, covered, and the napkin by it; and when they had opened their

at Ely and Hatton Houses, and proceeded in procession through the streets to Whitehall. So popular was the performance, that Shirley's description of the mask with the songs, &c. went through three editions in the year in which it was represented *.

The following extract of a letter, from Justinian Pagett to his cousin Tremyll,' without date, but clearly written only a few days after the mask was presented, has never been published: it contains some points not mentioned elsewhere, and among them the fact, that The Triumph of Peace, having been performed at Whitehall on Monday, gave such satisfaction to the King, that he required it to be repeated, with the whole ceremony of the procession, on the Tuesday following, at Merchant Tailors' Hall.

6

"I have sent you a booke of our Masque, which was presented on munday last with much applause ' and commendation from the K and Queene and all the Spectators. The K and Q supt that night at Salisbury House, and there saw us ride in the streetes, after which they presently went by water to White' hall, and there saw us again from the long gallery at

6

'plates they found in each of them forty pieces of gold, of their masters 'coin, for the first dish, and they had cause to be much pleased with this surprisal. The rest of the musicians had rewards answerable to 'their parts and qualities. The charges of all the rest of the Mask, 'which were borne by the Societies, were accounted to be above '20,000.

*The third impression' has considerable variations from the others, both in the description, and in the performances of the antimasks. It was printed by John Norton, for William Cooke, 1633.